The holy grail of data management is the "single source of truth." As I like to characterize it, when someone asks "Where is the data about X?" everyone knows the answer and everyone gives the SAME answer.

One of the most common challenges I hear from my clients is that, in certain cases, when data changes, they have to update data in multiple places at once. A typical example: a session at an event is being updated with a new speaker name, so the data has to be updated in the AMS (where the speaker's name is), in the event registration system (which is separate from the AMS), on the website for the event, and on the mobile app for the event. That's four places that have to be updated with the same data.

In an ideal world, there is a single source of truth. Using the example above, once the data is updated in the AMS, it populates all the other systems it needs to populate automatically. This may be done through integrations or it may happen because a single system has all this functionality. But in any case, data is updated one time, not four times. Not only is this more efficient, but it dramatically reduces the potential for errors or omissions.

So ask yourself: Does my organization have a single source of truth? And if not, what can we do to get there?